182 BATRACHIA: SALIENTIA. XXVII. 



this form by degrees it develops into the adult animal, which is 

 always more or less frog-like. (Lat., saliens, leaping.) 



Families of Salientia. 

 a. Tongue present, adherent in front, more or less free behind ; eustachian 



tubes widely separated. 



b. Thoracic * region capable of expansion : the free and divergent ends of 

 the coracoid and precoracoid connected by two longitudinal cartila- 

 ginous bands, the cartilage of one side overlapping the other. Toads 

 and Tree-toads. (Ardfera.) 



c. Upper jaw toothless; toes webbed, not dilated at tip; paratoids 

 (glandular bodies behind ear) generally present; terrestrial. 



BUFONID^E, 105. 

 cc. Upper jaw with teeth. 



d. Fingers and toes tapering, without viscid disks ; ours with a sharp 

 flat-edged spur at heel ; paratoids present ; subterranean. 



PELOBATID^E, 106. 



dd. Fingers and toes more or less dilated at their tips, this dilation 

 forming a viscid disk; paratoids none in our species; chiefly 



arboreal HYLID^E, 107. 



bb. Thoracic region incapable of expansion, the two bands of cartilage 

 united in a median mass between the adjacent ends of the nearly 

 parallel coracoid and precoracoid bones. Frogs. (Firmisternia.) 

 e. Upper jaw toothless ; diapophyses of sacral vertebrae dilated (tympa- 

 num hidden and toes free in our species). ENGYSTOMATID^E, 108. 

 ee. Upper jaw with teeth; no paratoids; toes webbed, and usually fin- 

 gers also; tympanum evident; no viscid disks; sacral diapophyses 

 scarcely dilated RANID^E, 109. 



FAMILY CV. BUFONID^l. (THE TOADS.) 

 Jaws toothless; toes webbed, not dilated at their tips; sacra 

 vertebra with dilated processes; paratoids prominent. Genera 8; 

 species 85, in most warm regions, 

 a. Snout not pointed ; no lateral fold of skin ; skin more or less warty. 



BUFO, 262. 

 262. BUFO Laurenti. (Lat. Toad.) 



514. B. lentiginosus Shaw. AMERICAN TOAD. Brownish 

 olive with a yellowish vertebral line and some brownish spots ; 

 two black patches below eyes ; tympanum large ; adults very 

 warty ; young nearly smooth ; a bony ridge above and behind eye ; 

 paratoids elliptical. L., 3^. E. U. S., very common, variable ; 

 the northern form is var. americanus (Le Conte) having the bony 

 ridges moderate, not swollen behind ; var. fowleri Putnam, Mass, 

 and N., has these crests much swollen and coalescent, "forming 

 an osseous boss on the skull." (Lat., freckled.) 



FAMILY CVI. PELOBATID^E. (THE BURROWING TOADS.) 



Upper jaw with teeth; heel usually provided with a more or less 

 developed spur. Genera 8, species 18 ; Europe and America. 



1 To understand the character of the structure here briefly described, the student 

 should dissect a toad (arciferous) arid a frog (firmisternial.) 



